Warbird Information Exchange

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Zero Surprise!!...

Man I can't believe I've never seen all this stuff! Every one of these is a great shot!

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

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Zero Surprise!!...

I always wonder how many of those pilots in the pictures survived. Especially the Devastator pics.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

TBD 1512 and it's mates are part of VT-6 in the Enterprise, 1512 was lost @ Midway.
The B-24 head on taxiing on Marston Matting, the P-40's and the two parked B-24's are once again Adak with it's drifting volcanic ash clouds. PBY #37 appears to be cruising past one of the islands in the chain too.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Yeesh, the Mosquito and C-47 sure left some serious marks on each other. Any idea what the story is there?

-Tim

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Keep 'em Flying.

G'day folks,

Some very interesting shots, thanks for drawing our attention to them. A number of points spring to mind.



The Spitfire appears to have been altered a little to remove identifying details. There appears to be a solid rectangle of dark earth in the area where the second letter of the squadron code should be, and the serial number appears to have been censored also.



This photo also reminds me of the human reality of war. I wonder who he was. Did he survive the war? Did he have a happy life? Makes me think of the signature line of a WIXer (I can't remember who, sorry) that can be paraphrased as "Don't be blinded by hero-worship; WW2 was fought and won by the same kind of twenty-something punks that we wouldn't want our daughters dating".

Cheers,
Matt

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Matt Austin - playing with warbirds since the early 80s.

See my Lee-Enfield videos at - http://www.youtube.com/user/Jollygreenslugg

I'll emphatically and respectfully disagree with that statement. And since I have a new attitude and outlook toward WIX and most of it's members. I shall refrain from starting a flame war that could get me in trouble with the management. I've retired from that crap!!! ... I want this thread to focus on the wonderful LIFE photos posted and NOT the beginning of a debate or argument on the moral fabric of the members of the Greatest Generation. Granted they were, and are human, just like the rest of us, but to associate the word "PUNK" with these men and women is simply insulting and uncalled for. And I refuse to believe that 416 "punks" died each day of WW2.

Why would this stir me up personally? Well my dad who barely survived serving during WW2 and my Uncle who didn't survive serving during WW2 were far from punks and I would assume most, if not all, parents who had daughters back then would have been honored to have both of those men date their daughters. I know you didn't mean any disrespect but I'd like the WIXer who has that for a signature line to possibly remove it or at least re-phrase it.

One last statement by me and I will respectfully walk away from this potential "debate" ... I'm not an optimist and I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist and I have very little "hero-worship" in me, but in a world that allows for very little of anything to look up to and respect these days, I hold dear to my heart the memory of the Greatest Generation no matter what flaws they may have had back during WW2. I'm allowed to type these words today because of them.

And if I had a daughter I would be honored to have any one of them date her back then .... and even now ...

Most times it's fun to play on this website, sometimes not so much

Rant over!!!!

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Zero Surprise!!...

G'day Mark,

I'll also make one statement and leave it at that, lest my previous comments be considered inflammatory.

My reading of the signature line in question is not meant to be derogatory. My usage and understanding of 'punk' is an energetic 'youngster' who may be looked sideways at by older generations. It doesn't imply criminality or immorality, and I apolgise if I suggested such. To me, 'punk' is associated with being young and energetic, and is used by those of us who are twice their age. "Hey, you young punk", to me, is said with a smile, not with a sneer.

My own take is forged on a childhood of growing up with grandparents who served and suffered in wartime. We had regular meals and gatherings with ex-service groups and I heard many stories, both broad and intimate. My respect of all who served is absolute.

My take is that, by and large, the twenty-somethings of WW2 were much like the twenty-somethings of today. They were predominantly good and idealistic, and had a crack at life. Human nature is what it is, and the young men of the 1940s had the same hopes, dreams, fears and anxieties of many young people today. Generalisations aside, people are people. There are some that I'd happily allow my 17yo daughter to date, and there are some that I'd chase off the property!

So, I apologise for giving the wrong idea. If I replaced the word 'punks' with the word 'larrikins' or 'jokers', it might express my thoughts better.

And so I leave it at that. Back to the pics. By the way, any thoughts on the altered Spit shot?

Cheers,
Matt

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Matt Austin - playing with warbirds since the early 80s.

See my Lee-Enfield videos at - http://www.youtube.com/user/Jollygreenslugg

Thx Matt, I couldn't have responded to my long winded rambling better if I tried. I'm still no good at this forum stuff. I knew you had better thoughts in mind. Thx again for clarifying. As for the Spit photo I'm expecting one of the RAF experts to chime in soon. I'll now go back to posting photos I know little about

Mark

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Zero Surprise!!...

Probably the C-47 was parked and the Mossie went out of control on take off. I hope the crew was OK, but the crowd seems to indicate otherwise.
Chris...

All fantastic photos. Since a lot of these photos seem to be pre-war I too think the same thing about the pilots- did they survive?

Thanks for posting the shots. Beautiful sharp color.

Chappie

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Brrring. Dispersal? TWO SECTIONS SCRAMBLE!!

Regarding the question of searching the LIFE archives... Mark used the word 'restricted', and that is really putting it mildly. Their search engine is probably fairly effective, but their interface is quite poor. Also, I think that whoever actually uploaded the images knew fairly little about them and therefore did not tag them aggressively enough with appropriate keywords.

So finding exactly what you're looking for can be a challenge. And even when you do find a series of photos that you're interested in, their interface is such that you have to cycle through all of the additional preview images for each and every image you come across in order to see the entire series. And even then, some images are not always included in the previews; they only show up for, say, one or maybe two images out of a series of a dozen or more.


As someone who's been on an aviation imagery quest for most of my life, I can say that I *can* believe it. I too was surprised during my first few forays into the LIFE archives, and am, a few years later, still surprised now and again.

I sometimes find it hard to fathom the number of photos I've come across, but find it even more difficult to fathom the number that I will never get to see. That's why I have in the past attempted to share what I find, and why, in my current state of increasing forum laziness, I'm grateful that guys like Mark continue to do the same... that shot of the bent Mossie and Goony Bird is a good example; I'd not seen it before.

Speaking of LIFE photos and the difficulties in searching the archive, has anyone here ever come across any of their AVG photos? Specifically those taken by George Rodger, from this ish of LIFE? Many other photos by Rodger come up in searches, but not those. Also, there was a series of color photos of certain members of the AVG with one of the Hawks, taken by Clare Booth Luce, which do not show up...


Fade to Black...

Wow! Most of those I hadn't seen before! Google/LIFE has been busy!

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Sure, Charles Lindbergh flew the plane... but Tom Rutledge built the engine!

Visit Django Studios online or Facebook!

Peter-Four-Oh good to see you chime in here Yes indeed the LIFE archives are tricky to search but I'm beginning to find some really neat stuff that hopefully all of you will really enjoy over the next several days, if only I can keep from blowing up my band width, lol.

I completely agree with you that it's nice to be able to share these type of photos with like-minded folks. I have nothing to gain but knowledge and the satisfaction of being able to share with others. It's fun stuff for sure. Keeps me out of trouble too haha. As for some AVG photos, yes I have been finding some very interesting LIFE images of which I will be happy to post ASAP. I'm still counting on you experts to assist me in identifying these images when possible.

Mark

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Zero Surprise!!...